


Hide and Go Cheat

by birdsongblue



Series: The Tot Years [3]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Cameos, Fluff, Gen, Turtle Tots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 17:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5937454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdsongblue/pseuds/birdsongblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey decides to break house rules in order to win a game of hide and go seek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hide and Go Cheat

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a birthday present for my little brother. He is turning 9 today! (His favorite turtle is Michelangelo)

Michelangelo pressed a hand over his mouth to suppress a giggle. 

He was playing hide and seek with his brothers, and Leo was the seeker this time around. 

Everyone had been very disappointed when Leo's turn came. The game never lasted long when Leo played. He had an unnerving ability find them all within a manner of minutes, no matter how creatively they hid. 

So, without telling ANY of his brothers, (he just knew that they would tell where his hiding spot was if Leo asked enough times), he had gone off into the tunnels. 

A little nagging voice in the back of his head reminded him that he wasn't supposed to go any deeper into the tunnels without Splinter. Images of Leo with a frustrated, stumped look on his face instead of his usual cocky smirk went through his mind, and he pushed the doubt away. 

Being able to finally win against Leo would be well worth the later punishments. 

"This is going to be so awesome..." He whispered the words into the darkness with an eager smile. 

As he walked the familiar path that his brothers often took while out with Splinter, an awful thought came to his mind. 

If he stayed in places that his brother's knew about, they would be able to find him!

He quickly glanced above his head to the pipes crossing the celling, chewing his lip in indecision. The skinny pipes looked pretty uncomfortable...but, no!

Leo would be sure to find him in such an obvious hiding place. He looked back to the curving tunnel in front of him and brightened as a small glimmer of light filtered down just a little ways away. 

Mikey skipped over to the ladder that disappeared as the tunnel turned upwards. Tiny holes in the heavy metal cover overhead sent golden light down, into the darkness. Mikey blinked and held out his fingers as tiny specks of dust floated through the beam of light. 

Reaching one hand to grasp the cold metal of the ladder, Mikey shivered as a wave of uncertainty that was quickly morphing into fright washed over him. 

He really should go back home. 

It isn't safe above the surface. 

The humans are dangerous. 

His hand stayed locked on the rung as he replayed the warnings told to him ever since he could remember. 

Shaking his head, Mikey stubbornly put a foot up on the bottom rung of the ladder and hoisted himself up. 

Humans couldn't be dangerous. They certainly didn't seem like they would do anything bad to him. He was just a kid, surely they would see that he was like them. 

His father didn't know anything yet. He had definitely never checked to see if the humans were as bad as he thought they were. 

Suddenly, his fingers crashed into the rusted metal barrier separating him from the world of light and freedom above. Grunting, he lifted the manhole cover up a few inches. 

Peering out of the sliver of space he had created, he watched for any feet passing him. 

Seeing none, he heaved the cover to the side, and let it clang down against the ground. Wrapping his hands around the edge to slide it to the side, he froze as a voice broke through the distant sounds of traffic. 

"Mom, Mom! That thing, on the ground! It's moving!" 

Mikey pulled his hands back in and gripped the ladder hard, eyes widening in terror. 

This might have been a bad idea. 

He waited for the "Mom" to respond, to come and pull aside the cover. He would be taken to a lab, just like Donnie's, but it would belong to bad humans. They would hurt him and keep him in a cage, like the animals he saw in books. 

Although he could hear stressed murmuring from the "Mom", she didn't seem to be hearing the younger voice. 

Mikey let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding and moved a stiff, shaking leg to feel out the rung below him. Let Leo have his little victory, he was not going to get trapped in a cage. 

Before he set his foot on the next rung, a loud slam echoed through the small alleyway. Footsteps sounded against the asphalt, and Mikey realized that they were growing closer. 

Heart nearly pounding out of his chest, Mikey looked down. The ground seemed impossibly far away, there was no way to climb down in time. 

Small pink fingers wrapped around the manhole cover, holding the area that his own hands had been moments before. 

Mikey glanced back and forth between the ground and the hands tugging at the manhole cover above his head rapidly. As the manhole inched away, a particularly loud scrape broke him out of his frozen state of terror. 

He let all the air out of his lungs in a whoosh and cracked his fingers open. Shutting his eyes tightly, he pushed off of the ladder. 

His arms came up around his head instinctively as the air rushed past him. Mikey secured his lip between his teeth to keep from crying out as he angled his body so his shell would take the brunt of the fall. 

A sickening crack echoed through the tunnels as carapace met concrete. 

Mikey's eyes snapped open at the impact and a small shout escaped his lips. 

There were a few seconds of silence as Mikey tried to catch his breath. Pain blossomed out from the left side of his shell, and as he reached around to assess the damage, he felt a series of cracks. 

With a low groan, Mikey rolled out of the light streaming down as the manhole continued to move to the side. 

As he pressed his cheek to the cool ground and blinked tears from his eyes, he heard the muted voice of the "Mom". 

"Timothy, come inside and wash your hands! Those things are filthy, and not to mention rusty."

Mikey squinted up at the crescent shaped slice of blue framing the face of a young boy with black hair.

As his vision faded to black, the last words that reached his ears were something about a tetanus shot. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leo looked to his other brothers angrily. "What do you mean, you don't know where he is hiding? He always tells you guys!"

Donnie shrugged, a baffled look on his face. "I thought he told Raph. You're sure you looked everywhere?"

Raph stood up as Leo answered that he had turned their home upside down. 

"We should tell Splinter. It's been almost an hour and a half. He always has dumb hiding spots, it has never taken us this long to find anyone!"

They all nodded and walked nervously to the sounds of cooking from the kitchen. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Splinter raced down the tunnel where tiny footprints had been left in the thick mud. 

After discovering that the family's youngest member had disobeyed the most important rule of the house, Splinter had ordered his other children to stay behind in their home while he searched for Michelangelo. 

As the tunnel tilted upwards, the mud became more scarce, and the worried father had to rely on his enhanced sense of smell. 

His son's scent grew clearer, and he realied with a start that he was heading towards one of the tall ladders to the surface. 

"Michelangelo, if you have done what I am thinking..." Splinter trailed off as he recognized a sharp, metallic smell. 

This was a scent that he would always recognize, mutant abilities or no. 

He rounded the corner and immediately saw a small, crumpled form mere feet from the ladder. 

"Michelangelo!" 

Splinter knelt next to his son and put a hand on the young, pale face. 

"Uhn...Daddy?" The young turtle stirred and moved to turn over. 

Sighing in relief, Splinter examined the side of Mikey's shell. Finding the wound to be not incredibly serious, he supported Mikey as he sat up. "What happened, my son?" 

Mikey winced and reached for his side again, only to be gently stopped by his father. "I...uh...I fell." His arm was extended, his finger reaching to point at the spot that he fell from.

Splinter quickly looked up the length of the ladder in alarm. "From the ladder?," he asked in astonishment. A fall from that hight would be very serious for any other children than his own. 

"I believe you have much better balance than that, Michelangelo. What could have caused you to fall from the ladder?" 

Without waiting for an answer, Splinter gently gathered the injured child in his arms and turned towards home. 

"Well," Mikey began, "I was playing hide and seek with my brothers, and Leo was it..." 

Splinter sighed, knowing that this would be a pointlessly long story and began thinking about what supplies he would need from the first aid kit. 

"And Leo wins EVERY time, so I didn't want him to win this time..."


End file.
